Construction dust, open waste dumping top polluting activities

In December, garbage burning, violations of dust norms during construction and demolition activities and open dumping of waste topped the polluting activities in the city, revealed the ground visits of Central Pollution Control Board teams across Delhi and complaints received on its Sameer app.

The data released by CPCB shows that 2,092 complaints were made on the mobile app from across NCR in one month. This includes 1,731 from Delhi, 91 from Noida, 38 from Faridabad, 85 from Gurgaon and 147 from Ghaziabad.

CPCB teams conducted 300 visits in December, of which 244 were in Delhi, nine in Noida, 12 in Gurgaon, nine in Faridabad and 26 in Ghaziabad.

“In terms of prominent polluting activities across Delhi, 131 incidents of open burning, 105 traffic congestions, 471 instances on open dumping, 593 construction and demolition sites violation and 127 instances of road dust were recorded. These complaints were then forwarded to the agencies concerned,” a senior CPCB official told TOI.

Meanwhile, 139 complaints were classified as “others”. “A few complaints are difficult to categorise. For example, a tailor burning bits of scrap clothes, or neighbour’s scooter causing pollution. Many people are also trying to settle personal scores through these complaints,” he said.